Scene 1: MY ADVENTURE ASHORE
MUSIC: Dissonant and mysterious. Lights come up on an eerie land, a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees. The isle is uninhabited, here and there are flowering plants. The steam and heat from the day rises like fog from the mossy ground.
Little by little we notice a still figure of a man, sitting alone in a small clearing, his legs crossed and head cocked upwards. His name is BEN GUNN. The sun has baked his clothes and the island has thinned him, a leathery white haired man, he has lived for two life times and then some.
After a moment we hear a noise, a gunshot. BEN springs up and scampers, animal-like off stage to hide. The off-stage noises get progressively louder.
Pirates: (Off) I’ve got him/ He’s this way/ He’s over here/
Hands: I’ll cut yer heart out and eat it before you, lad, I will!
Suddenly JIM HAWKINS rushes into the clearing like a desperate animal being pursued by wild hounds. He is indeed trapped. Then, from trunk to trunk a creature flits like a deer, running man-like on two legs, but unlike any man that Jim had ever seen, stooping almost double as it ran. Yet a man it was! It’s BEN GUNN again. Now fully trapped, JIM begins to recall what he had heard of cannibals. Which is worse, being eaten or being with Silver?
BEN GUNN grabs JIM by the wrist.
Jim: Ah!
Ben Gunn: Be quiet!
BEN GUNN pulls JIM to hide behind a fern. As they disappear, the PIRATES appear. The sun beats full upon them.
Gertie: Jim Hawkins, you’ll rue the day yer mother ever spawned you, you will!
Mary Reade: (shoots her pistols) Your course is run lad, come out and yer death will be quick!
SILVER throws his hat beside him on the ground, and his great, smooth, blonde face is all shining with heat.
Silver: STOP! STOP YER SHOOTIN’!! He’s got us aimin at each other, ya fools! You’ll be massacree’d without his liftin’ a finger!
Calico Jack: He’s got to be close, we saw him!
Meg: You thought you saw him. This Island is a devil.
Bonney: It’s called Skull Island for a reason.
Silver: And that lad’s smarter then all the rest of you mixed together, he is.
Thump! GUNN has thrown a rock offstage.
Grace: That’ll be him!
Charlotte: Hurry up!
Meg: By all that’s holy and unholy, I’ll have his head!
The PIRATES run off. GUNN watches, to make sure they’re gone, then leads JIM out of the hiding spot.
Jim: Who are you?
Act Out 